The next day, all three of my familiars were already awake and waiting for food. Once we'd eaten, it would finally be time to challenge the boss room. After seeing the state of everyone in Tempest yesterday as well as hearing their story, it would be a lie to say that I wasn't worried.
However, feeding all my hungry familiars came first.
'What should it be today... Fried stuff is no good right in the morning... Hmm... Pork chops should be fine, I guess.'
I had planned to make the pork chops into a sandwich, but when I asked my familiars for their opinions, Hati said that he just wanted the meat, so I ended up just serving him a mountain of pork chops. Both Razsegath and Groot wanted the sandwiches, so I did as they wished.
'Slice the round, black bread in two horizontally, and lay a bed of shredded cabbage on the bottom half. Put the pork chop on top of that, close the sandwich, and the whole thing is done.'
'It's more of a pork chop burger than a pork chop sandwich, huh?'
For now, I assembled five each for Razsegath and Groot.
Razsegath dexterously used his front legs to hold on to it and dig in. [Man, the flavor on this meat is great, with its slight sourness.]
[It really is. So good.]
It seemed like the pork chop burgers went over well with both Razsegath and Groot.
As soon as I thought to start on my own meal, Hati demanded another helping and so I served him another pile of pork chops. Even though I only served Hati pork chops since that's all he asked for, he was still eating with gusto.
'You really love meat, don't you? Now then, it's my turn.'
*Chomp*
'Mm, this black bread together with the cabbage and the pork chops is unexpectedly good. Yeah, this ketchup-based tare is really good. It's also nice that I'm feeling full just from one since the black bread was so tough and filling.'
When I went to take another bite, just one more mouthful of the pork chop burger, I felt an intense stare on me.
Looking towards where I was getting that feeling...
******Gulp******
All the members of Tempest were looking at me, or rather, the pork chop burger in my hands.
'Umm... it's kinda hard to eat like this, you know...?'
"I know just how precious food is in the dungeon, trust me. But... just maybe... if you have some leeway with your supplies... We'll pay, so can you split some of that with us?" So said the man who was the leader of Tempest.
"That's fine, but..."
"I-I see! That's great. So, how much will it be?"
'That's right, how much would I even charge for this stuff? 5 copper, maybe? No wait, I think 5 copper for a single burger was too expensive?'
"Since we're in a dungeon... what about 1 silver?"
"Huh?"
"So it really was too cheap... Then..."
"N-No no! I-I'm fine with 1 silver." It wasn't that it was too cheap, I was just surprised that the price was set at 1 silver for a single burger.
"Okay then. Sorry, but can you give us six portions?" The leader secured 1 silver from each of his party members, and handed the 6 silver over to me.
'Is this fine? I feel like I'm stealing from them, taking a whole silver each for a burger. Hmmm... Ah, that's right, I have some hot water that I prepared to make coffee with, and I still have some instant consommé soup, I think, so I can add that as an extra. I still think it's too much money, but I can just chalk that up to a dungeon fee.'
I made pork chop burgers and instant consommé soup for six people and served them to the people from Tempest. Of course, I made sure to make the soup so they couldn't see.
"Ahhh, so good..."
"It's the best, eating hot food in a dungeon..."
"Especially since it's just been hard bread and salty dried meat up until now... Comparing this to that is like heaven and earth."
"Right? If you think about the hardest thing about being in a dungeon, it's gotta be food..."
"I feel like this is the first proper meal I've had in a long while..."
"I'm so jealous of people with Item Boxes. It must be nice to be able to eat stuff like this in a dungeon."
Said the members of Tempest while they chowed down on their pork chop burgers. Even Damian, whom I've seen more of than any man should, was completely fine by now and was going through his burger with gusto. He recovered so fast... or actually, it might have been that the potion Groot made was just that powerful.
"Give me another."
[Master more.]
'Ah, Hati and Groot want more... Whoops, there's no more pork chops.'
"Ahh, those pork chops were the last ones, so what about beef bowls?"
"Anything is fine, just hurry up."
[Everything master makes is delicious, so anything is fine!]
I handed Hati and Groot an extra-large serving each of bloody horn-bull beef bowl. After another two helpings of extra-large beef bowls, Hati and Groot were finally full.
"Well then, it's been real. We'll be heading back to the surface now."
No no, it was our pleasure.
I somehow managed to make money even in a dungeon.
"Take care." When I said that, the man said, "You too," and left along with his party members.
"Hey we are leaving."
'F-Finally, huh?'
With Hati's declaration as a signal, we set off for the 22nd floor's boss room. After taking a peek inside...
'There's just so many huge monsters everywhere... so many...'
Just as we had heard, there were three spriggans that were even larger than the already large trolls and minotaurs. And on top of that, the number of trolls and minotaurs was huge.
"Spriggans are huge... s-so huge..." They were big enough for me to unconsciously whisper that.
'That thing has to be like 5 meters tall. How the hell do we beat that?'
"Razsegath, Groot, let us go."
[Sure!]
[Got it!]
While I was busy making sure I was around to fight another day, my familiars charged into the boss room.
"Ah..." 'Man, why are they so energetic about this? I guess I should follow them...'
Readying the mithril short sword that Groot made, I slowly made my way into the boss room.
"Ghhgaaahhhh!!!"
"Guoohhhhh!!!"
"Moooaaaahhh!"
It was a storm of agonizing cries. Though that was probably just because Hati, Razsegath, and Groot were running amok. I was watching them all fight from a corner of the room.
'Oh! Hati just used Wind magic. And Razsegath's over there surrounded in Lightning magic and charging into things. Ah, Groot's using its Acid Bullet to its fullest.'
Everyone was steadily clearing out all the monsters.
"Guooohhhh!!!"
*Thud* *Thud* *Thud* *Thud*
A sudden roar and earthquake. 'Hm? Ghh! A troll's coming this way!'
I immediately readied my mithril short sword.
"Guooohh!!" The troll swung its huge club at me.
'Tch, shit! But if he's this slow even I'll probably be able to do something about it!'
"Hahh!"
I dodged the troll's club and swung at its right leg.
"G-Guoh?!"
*Thud*
The troll, unable to endure, fell onto its right knee. I quickly slashed at its left leg as well.
"Hoohh!!"
*Thud*
The troll Fell to the stumpy remains of its left knee as well. 'Good, now it can't move.'
"Hyahh!" I thrust my mithril short sword into the immobile troll's neck. The tip of the mithril sword slid easily into the troll's throat, as if it was being sucked in.
"Guoohhhhhhhhh!!!" After heaving out a death cry so loud it made me want to cover my ears, the troll Fell forward with a thud and ceased to move.
'Did I do it? By myself?'
"Y-Yeaahhhh!!! I did it! I totally did it!!!"
I beat a troll by myself! Even I can do it if I have to! I never had a pinch of confidence when it came to combat, but just now I might have gained some.
After a while, the deceased troll became thinner and thinner before disappearing. All that was left was a troll hide. I reverently stored the prize that I won myself into my Item Box.
After that, I started to retrieve all the other drop items that were scattered around the room. There were two drops from the newly appeared spriggans on this floor: one dropped a magic stone, and the others dropped gemstones. This time, we received a ruby and an emerald. The two of them were clear of impurities and had an amazingly beautiful color, though they were only small pebbles.
After that and sticking in a mealtime in the middle we went through the giants zone of the 23rd, 24th, and 25th floors. As we went lower, the number of rooms grew, as well as the number of monsters. My three familiars weren't fazed in the slightest, though. Or rather, they were still happily beating down all the monsters that came attacking us. Of course, I didn't slack on retrieving the huge amount of dropped items.
While all that was happening, we also found two more treasure chests. Inside these were a diamond ring and a tanzanite necklace. Jewelry was expensive, so I welcomed the discoveries with open arms.
We also encountered three more mimics. Among those, only one of them dropped another treasure chest. This time, it wasn't a small one that was more like a jewelry box, but a relatively large decorated treasure chest. This one seemed to be worth a lot of money as well.
After continuing our exploration, we decided to end the day outside the boss room on the 25th floor.
It was decided that we would be challenging the boss room the next morning and then, we would head straight to the 26th floor after that.
According to Hati, the presences on the 26th floor Felt different from the ones up till now on the 25th floor, the giants zone. In other words, there was a large possibility that the scenery would be changing once again.
'I wonder how it'll look next...?' While experiencing mixed feelings of unease and anticipation, I went to sleep.
'No matter what happens, I'll be fine with Hati, Razsegath, and Groot around.'
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
We were in front of the boss room on the 25th floor. When I peeked inside...
"The room is bigger again. There's also more monsters."
"Mm. I can tell from their presences, yes."
"One, two, three... Huh? There's ten spriggans in there." Following the spriggans, who were a size bigger, with my eyes, I counted at least ten of them.
There were actually so many giants stuffed into this room I was actually almost amazed at it, like, "How did you do that?"
'Does that mean they just pulled out all the stops for the last floor of the giants zone? This dungeon really is just the worst...'
"Hmph, no matter how many there are, they are still nothing to me."
[Right, right! Actually, just about this much is nice, it feels like we're actually fighting.]
[Groot's gonna beat a lot, a whole lot again!]
'Yep, looks like even this many giants aren't a match for my children here.'
"Now then, it is time."
[Let's go!!]
[Yay!]
With Hati's words as a signal, all three of my familiars spread out into the room that was full to bursting with giants.
'I'm not sure if they're all just fearless or what... Everyone's actually really strong, though. It's like... they just don't have any sense of tension? Even though we're in a dungeon and all. Well, it's not like making a note of this now will do anything. Ahh everyone's just beating down the giants left and right, aren't they? Now then, I guess I should get in there too. I'm a little late though.'
I quietly slipped into the 25th floor's boss room.
"Guooohhhh!!!" Apparently I was noticed, as once again a troll was coming at me.
'Hm? Isn't it a little faster than that troll on the 24th floor?'
"Guooohhh!!" While belting out a war cry, it swung both its fists at me. It might have been a little faster than the troll on the 24th floor, but...
"I can still dodge something like this!! Hahh!" Dodging the troll's arm, I cut into its flank. My mithril short sword, with its excellent cutting edge, cut open a huge wound in the troll's side.
"Guoohhhh!!!"
Ouff... The troll's guts were poking out of its wound.
The troll that I gutted was swinging its arms in a frenzy, as if trying to blow me away.
'He's extra mad, isn't he? But still, huge swings like that wouldn't hit me in a million years.'
I circled around to the troll's back while dodging its swings.
"Heih! Hahh!" I cut through the calves on both of the troll's feet.
"Gh! Ghoooohhh!!"
*Thudddddddd* The troll fell forward, as if it was prostrating itself. I stabbed my mithril short sword deep around where its heart should have been.
*Zshhh*
"How's that!!"
The troll twitched for a moment and then Fell still.
"Yeahh!!"
*Clanngg*
"Woah!!" While I celebrated defeating the troll, I was pushed by something and Fell on my butt.
"W-What was that?"
"Moooaaaarrrr!!!" When I looked up, a minotaur was raising its axe.
"WoaaAAAHHH!!" I reflexively covered my head in my arms and closed my eyes.
Will Hati's barrier really cover this?! Please work, pleaaassseee!!!
*CLANG*
The minotaur swung its axe... and I wasn't hurt at all.
"Oh?" Timidly moving my arms, I opened my eyes.
The minotaur was swinging its axe at my head over and over with a wrathful expression on its face.
*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!*
However, I wasn't taking any damage at all. I did feel like I was being pushed a little from somewhere over the top of my head, but other than that I was fine.
'Ah, so the reason why I was pushed onto my butt in the first place was because of that axe, wasn't it?'
*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!*
'Hey, I know I'm not taking any damage, but aren't you attacking me a bit too much?'
"Heihh!"
*Zsshh*
I thrust my mithril short sword at the minotaur's heart.
"Moooaahhrrrr!!"
*Thud*
The minotaur, having been pierced through the heart, fell backwards.
"Yesss!! I did it!" I picked up the drops from the troll and minotaur that I defeated: a poison claw, and a horn.
"So you learned how to fight a little, huh?" Hati said, coming close to me.
"Well, a little bit. I'm still not used to fighting, but I can't just be leaving it all up to you guys all the time."
[Master Groot picked up some stuff!]
'Ohh! Looks like Groot decided to help!' Since there were no other drops on the floor, it seemed like Groot got all of it.
"Oh, you got all of it, didn't you? Thanks, Groot." Receiving the drops from Groot, I stored them in my Item Box. When I petted Groot as a reward, it started hopping around happily.
[Hey! There's a huge treasure chest in the back there!] Razsegath said through telepathy while flying.
"A treasure chest? Let's go." We were led by Razsegath towards the location of the treasure chest.
"It's just like Razsegath said, this one's bigger than all the ones before..." The treasure chest was about 1 meter across and 50 cm tall. I was hit with the desire to just open it, but I resisted and appraised it instead.
[Treasure Chest]
A treasure chest designed to release a fireball when opened, as well as poison gas right after that.
'Both a fireball and poison gas?! What the hell is this war crime? I kind of expected this what with its size and all, though... But even if you dodge the fireball, there's poison gas?! Anyone other than me with Hati's barrier would die, totally die!
"The trap on this chest sure is nasty..."
"You appraised it too, Hati? It's both a fireball and poison gas, after all. Anyone without barrier like us would just die, wouldn't they?"
"Yeah. It is probably possible to dodge the three fireballs, but unless you have something really powerful to counter with, that instant death gas is probably impossible."
Wha? "Huh? Three fireballs? And the gas has an instant death effect?"
"Yeah, you probably could not see it because of the difference in levels."
"Ah, I see. It's one of those things that you can only see with higher levels. You did say that you get quite the long exposition when you use Appraisal, didn't you, Hati?"
'Still though, the nastiness of this thing just gets worse with what Hati read on top of that... Three whole fireballs and instant death gas... You've got no intention of ever letting go of your treasures, do you? Mwahaha, but we're fine, though! And so, time to open it.'
Just like Hati's Appraisal said, after opening the chest, it released three fireballs, and right afterwards an ominously black poison gas was released into the surroundings with a sound of decompressing air.
*Cough* *Cough*
"Ahh, that was awful."
Of course, it didn't work on us. Peeking inside the treasure chest, there was a gold ingot and a gem, as well as a ring. Appraising the gem, I found that it was an imperial topaz. 'What an expensive-sounding name.'
As for the ring, this was what my Appraisal said.
[Ring of Magic Recovery]
A magic item that slightly speeds up the rate of magic power recovery.
'It's a magic item!' Wondering exactly how much slightly meant, I had Hati appraise it, and apparently slightly meant by 1.2 times.
'This is great!'
Of course, I used it myself. I put the ring on immediately. And as one might have expected out of a magic item, while I first thought it might have been too big, when I put it on, I found that it fit perfectly. Stuffing the gold ingot and the imperial topaz in my Item Box, we all proceeded to the 26th floor.
"Huh? What's this...?" The floor we stepped into was a densely growing forest.
"So it went with this, huh? This dungeon is quite amusing."
'Nonono, Hati, this isn't amusing at all. I heard that dungeons might have floors like these, but isn't this way too sudden? I mean, up until now it's been all tunnels and stone walls, right? You'd expect the next floor to be the same, right? And all of a sudden, a forest?'
"Hey, get on. I am feeling a fairly strong presence. We are heading for it."
Hati seemed like he was having fun.
"Hurry it up!"
'Yeah, yeah.' I gave in to Hati's prodding and got on his back.
The first thing we encountered in this dense forest was a huge praying mantis that was over 2 meters tall. And their numbers counted in the teens. When I tried appraising them...
[Giant Killer Mantis]
A B-ranked monster.
'Huh? That's all? W-Well, it was just the monster's name before, so thinking like that this is an improvement...'
"What? These are just small fry..." Right after Hati muttered that, lightning ran along the killer mantises with a snap and crackle. The giant killer mantises numbering in their teens were all instantly fried black and died.
"Hati..." 'To think you'd just suddenly hit them with lightning... Those giant killer mantises are just way too sad. Well, it was probably just their luck, I guess.'
[Awww, Hati killed them all by himself.]
[Unfair, Uncle Hati!]
Razsegath and Groot were both complaining that Hati beat them all by himself.
"Small fry like that are not worth your time, anyway. Let us find something stronger."
[You say that, but you're just gonna try and fight it yourself. How unfair...]
[Groot wants to fight too Groot will go pew pew and use Water magic to beat up a whole lot of them!]
'But still, why does everyone like fighting so much? You guys' blood is way too hot.'
"W-Well, isn't it fine to just take turns here like before? Next will be Razsegath, and after that Groot can take a turn." When I said that, Razsegath and Groot reluctantly accepted.
[Oh fiine. But I'm next, okay?]
[If master says so, then Groot will do that because Groot is good...]
After that, I retrieved the giant killer mantis' drops, and we continued on through the forest. By the way, their drops were small magic stones and giant killer mantis scythes.
Steadily making headway through the forest, the next thing we encountered was a murder grizzly.
'But isn't this... bigger than the one Hati killed?' When I asked Hati, I was told that those born in the dungeon can be stronger and bigger than those outside. Apparently, the density of magic had something to do with it.
"Guoohhh!!" The murder grizzly had set us in its sights and ran towards us while shaking its huge body.
[Yahhooo!! Let's gooo!!]
*Thudshhh*
Razsegath, clad in fire, pierced through the murder grizzly's side with incredible speed.
'So fast...'
Picking up the murder grizzly's pelt that was dropped, we proceeded further into the forest.
The next thing that came out was a paralyze butterfly. It was a B-ranked monster, a butterfly around 1 meter in length with a sinister orange and blue polka-dot pattern. Apparently they moved around in packs, and the one we encountered consisted of around thirty of them.
We were seeing it for the first time, so I asked Hati about it, and it seemed that after paralyzing their prey by spreading their poisonous scales, they sucked the fluids out of their prey while they still lived.
'While they're still alive...? That's so brutal.'
'Now it's Groot's turn, so go get 'em!' "Groot, these bugs spread dust that make it so you can't move if you get too close. So get them from far away, okay?"
[Yeah, got it!]
Groot shot down the paralyze butterflies one after the other with the long-range version of its Acid Bullet. The entire fight was finished within a minute.
[Master Groot got all of them!]
"Yeah, yeah. You're so awesome, Groot." When I complimented it, Groot started bouncing around happily.
'Groot's sooo cute...' The tree seedling was my only source of healing in this brutal dungeon.
The paralyze butterfly drops were some paralyzing poison scales (in a bottle for some reason; there was a lot of this dropped as well, somehow.) After picking them up, we proceeded further into the forest.
After that, we saw a procession of beast-, bird-, and bug-type monsters that all seemed like they would belong in a forest, and we defeated them one after the other, collecting their drops while we proceeded along the floor. The idea of stopping in the middle for a meal was brought up, but...
"Huh? This floor doesn't have a safe area?!" When I got the idea and asked Hati to lead us to the safe area, it turned out that there was none on this floor.
"Floors like this often do not have safe areas." According to Hati, floors with a forest or desert biome (if I remembered right, they were called field dungeons?) more often than not didn't feature any safe areas.
It was said that field dungeons were both extremely spacious and home to a lot of high-ranking monsters, so they were high difficulty areas, but the fact that there were no safe areas probably raised that difficulty even higher.
'The fact that there's no safe areas means there's no place to rest and relax, after all. Not only that, but since only high-ranking monsters appear, it's even more stressful. It's totally different from camping out in a normal forest.'
"Well, do not be so worried. Everything will be fine with my barriers."
'That's true. Taking things up until now into account, unless there's something ridiculously strong, Hati's barriers will make things safe, probably.'
"Then let's just eat here. Hati, I'm counting on you for that barrier."
"Yeah, I understand."
Once Hati put up his barrier, I started preparing our meal. 'What should it be...? Ah, right. Let's go with that: the melt-in-your-mouth stewed pork I had pre-made. Let's use that and make stewed pork bowls.'